steve fay Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 Tower are clever in that being Heljans largest customer they like to make it sound that if you don't pre order through them then the project won't go ahead, really it's just clever marketing as I'm a Heljan stockist and I can take pre orders for any thing Heljan announce. Now I don't wish to brake forum rules on advertising so I won't say any more about that other than to prove a point. I can't say it for certain but I'm sure Tower killed heljans O gauge teddy bear as they are DJH stockist and probably knowing that a kit was coming didn't want to have the two in competition, Silly really because it seems the DJH offering has had quite a few short comings and the Heljan version could have been a better option. You only had to read the notice on towers web site when it was announced. I'm not wishing to knock tower as I've been a customer in the past and had great service. Any way I think a new thread on the possibilities of future Heljan 7mm stuff should be started as we are taking up space on Brian's thread. Or as Kim keeps telling me Wait & see what the future brings !!!! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted May 22, 2014 Author Share Posted May 22, 2014 Hi Brian, I have really enjoyed your "Thumper' build. So much so that I took a sneaky trip to Alresford today and took several pics of their Hampshire 2 car unit. (I think it was originally a 3 car set, as there data panel states length over buffers as 199' 6". I was unable to gain access to photograph the inside, so couldn't get any cab, engine room or passenger area photos. I have to agree the inserts on the door windows are a must have. I’m hoping to purchase a two car kit, and would love to enhance the kit as you have with the extra detailing parts. As with others on this thread, I have had no luck with DJH with obtaining parts, even though I had previously purchased a RTR 03 from them. If you have time, I would be grateful if there could be a chance of you posting a list of parts and source of them? Many thanks, Rich Ok Rich I will put a list together shortly for you (when I get time) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted May 28, 2014 Author Share Posted May 28, 2014 Haven't been able to do much modelling recently due to work! and going out. But Pete Harvey sent me the etches for the Western cab vent so I just had to get them on. 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve fay Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Very nice Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 Done some more to the MLV. 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 The buffers appear to have fallen off.......and re-fixed themselves together. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltic17 Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 Come on Brian - never mind driving those 66's all over the place for the last month!!........we all want to know what modelling have you been doing???.....looking forward to updates as usual.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverstreak Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 Perhaps Brian has had a nice recently overhauled Red DBS Class 60 to play with and lost all thought of O gauge Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Harvey Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 A nice Colas 60 would be very nice. ???? Brian's reply the last word being "**** OFF" 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted July 3, 2014 Author Share Posted July 3, 2014 The only class 60's I play with these days are from Heljan! DBS want to ship them out to a competitor, that's fine, as I signed off the real things a couple of years ago as there has been no work on them at Didcot for a long time. All I drive are 66's and the local pilot. I have been looking into early retirement recently as I have now been on the footplate for 40 years and as they say, been there done that and got the tee shirt and I am not looking forward to the future as DBS seems intent on lowering their selves to the level of GBRF and Colas! But I am still young (well young'ish) so will probably have to put up with the job a bit longer unfortunatly. Anyway on the modelling front, I do not appear to have done much recently I grant you but I have been on holiday to Germany and Poland in early June then it was off to Denmark for a couple of days and then work for 2 nights and then off to Whitby for a week. June was a bit hectic. I have recently received some JLTRT brake castings to add to the Heljan Western up-grade but I just need to work out how to fit them as they hover in mid air at the moment. I received a second Heljan class 60 sample that is in the process of being painted into EWS livery. It's also got a Howes sound chip in it and I just put a Cliff Williams bass speaker in it so it does sound quite nice now. Also putting ETH onto a friends Heljan class 31 and weathering it. A few other jobs for Heljan keep cropping up and taking my time. I have added the trusses under the MLV as well! Got to order some more castings for the MLV from JLTRT I just remembered. Having some new windows put in the house soon so that's going to be fun moving everything out of the way, that will be a few days with no modelling! All in all I have been doing a bit but not much to show for it, or so it seems. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianwales Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 Hi Brian How far down towards Wales do you work from Didcot, do you sign the road as far as Margam? Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted July 4, 2014 Author Share Posted July 4, 2014 I don't sign past Didcot in that direction Ian. I only used to go to Avonmouth that way but we lost that work a few years ago. Some drivers in another link sign Newport at Didcot. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted August 2, 2014 Author Share Posted August 2, 2014 Hello I am still here Haven't done much recently have I. We have just had some new windows installed throughout the house so all the modelling stuff had to be packed away Also had to get on with a bit of stuff in the garden whilst it was nice out. Anyway getting back to normal now. I got hold of a J&M Hughes EMU trailing bogie for the MLV recently so had a go at putting it together today and then added the etched pick-up shoe beam. I still have to find out the best way to attach the pick-up shoe to the beam. just another three to make. Picture attached as well to show the Markits turned brass horns. 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CME and Bottlewasher Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Hi Brian, Nothing in life stays the same for long these days, having said that there are worse places to work than the railways - BTW will the closure of the Power Station affect you any? Kindest regards, CME Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted August 4, 2014 Author Share Posted August 4, 2014 As you get older you don't like all this changing going on in the world, now where do I find a link to the Luddites? Thankfully this hobby lets us live in our own little utopia We lost our work with the Power Stn a long time ago when Bristol drivers ended up working all the coal trains so as a depot at Didcot it has had no effect what so ever. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted August 4, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 4, 2014 As you get older you don't like all this changing going on in the world, now where do I find a link to the Luddites? Thankfully this hobby lets us live in our own little utopia We lost our work with the Power Stn a long time ago when Bristol drivers ended up working all the coal trains so as a depot at Didcot it has had no effect what so ever. Regrettably it was never really an economic proposition to put power station work into Didcot. It never made any sort of sense for regular working with the trains from the north and it was equally difficult to make any real economic sense out of it for the Avonmouth flows although it was one method we looked at very seriously when developing the Avonmouth scheme (by which time I think Reading had ceased to blame me for moving their last loco hauled work to Didcot, but it wasn't me anyway as it happens although certain Drivers at Reading thought it was ). The only way Didcot would have got in on the Avonmouth working would probably have been if the trains had gone to Reading to run round (which I did run a timing trial for) but my scheme to convert the Up Relief between Foxhall and Didcot West End into a loop was the best financial option and fitted the length of trains we could run so that knocked the Reading alternative on the head and the Moreton Cutting option was too expensive to get off the ground. So that was that - but at least it doesn't leave me having to feel guilty about Didcot losing power station work now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted August 7, 2014 Author Share Posted August 7, 2014 Didcot drivers worked Avonmouth to Didcot coal trains from the start Mike. We also learnt Daw Mill and went there for a bit. We only started to loose work to Barton Hill drivers when they lost the RES work and therefore had no work so we had to give them some. This eventually led to them having all the work for the last 4-5 years I think it was. So we had not been involved with the P.Stn for a few years now. I have done a fare few miles on class 60's with 45 HDA's to Avonmouth. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted August 7, 2014 Author Share Posted August 7, 2014 I have now added the shoe beams to the power bogie and added the whitemetal shoes. Also put a Westdale speedo on the power bogie. I also soldered on the steps on the solebar. One little problem with these was that looking at pictures of blue/grey era it would seem the the one at the trailing bogie end was a long one extending back under the first pair of luggage doors. This was fine apart from the fact there was only one supplied in the kit. Thankfully I still had one that I did not use for the Thumper kit. Don't ever throw anything away from kits! I am not going to be able to add any of the stuff under the solebar for a while as I have to get some T shape brass barat Telford then add some extra uprights on the long trusses that for some reason nobody seems to include on MkI style underframes. I added these on the Thumper. I can't put the brake gear on the power bogie either at the moment as I need to put some fibre washers between the wheels and the bearings to aid insulation there. The trouble is a friend has them at the moment for another job being worked on. There's still some little jobs to do on it though. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 Well I managed to find a piece of T shaped brass to make the extra upright supports in the truss beams but as always it was not enough to do all of them so three at the outer ends will have to wait until Telford. But by putting these on I could now get on with the underframe details. These three angled boxes are again not quite right as they should have gentle curve from top to bottom and not straight and then a tight curve at the bottom. I filed a curve in as best I could without going into the louvre detail. The box on the right has to have some bracing detail added, shame it's got a sink hole in the middle! I have made one fuse box up so far to see what I think as they are not quite like the real thing but I think they will do. Exhauster casting sat a bit too high so I had to build it up with a bit of brass rod so it sat lower. Air reservoir cylinder. I might alter the pipe coming out of it so it sits a bit closer. 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 Little bit more done under the MLV. I shortened this long thin moisture trap and mounted it a bit lower. Moved the airpipe in a bit closer to the res tank. Modified a lost wax casting to represent the oil res tank for the vacuum exhauster. Made up the small resistor grids. Modified the support brackets so they sit further up under the solebar. The pictures I have of these show the bottom of the rear level with the bottom of the trusses. The S shape etch soldered on the front of the grids was bent to high heaven hence why it's not that straight. It was do it like this or the window was beckoning! Made a headcode up. 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CME and Bottlewasher Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 (edited) As you get older you don't like all this changing going on in the world, now where do I find a link to the Luddites? Thankfully this hobby lets us live in our own little utopia We lost our work with the Power Stn a long time ago when Bristol drivers ended up working all the coal trains so as a depot at Didcot it has had no effect what so ever. Yes indeed - and wisdom also kicks in and one knows that it is pointless trying to 'fight' it. What I dont like is 'change for change sake' whereby the baby is often thrown out with the bathwater (the problem is that there are too many 'shiny suits' queuing up to make a name for themselves - with the gift of the powerpoint presentation, yet little or no wisdom or emotional intelligence et al.). It also seems that our govt has err shall we say, certain vested interests, in 'going nuclear'. Our models provide a little respite from it all though ;-) Edited August 16, 2014 by CME and Bottlewasher Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted August 18, 2014 Author Share Posted August 18, 2014 Bufferbeam detail added on one end. Handrails added to all cab doors. Catches added to battery box covers. Leveled it up a bit by filling a bit off the trailing bogie pivot and adding a washer on the power bogie pivot. 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian daniels Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 (edited) Done some more to the Heljan Western upgrade.I have now replaced the buffers with JLTRT buffers so there is no seam around the barrel now. And I finally had a go at making and attaching the JLTRT brake castings. I ended up glueing the rear brake hanger into the frames and added the strip of metal across the front which rests on the top of the bogie. Ideally it should be screwed into the top I suppose but it seams ok at the moment. I had to remove the end of the fuel tank fairing to get room for the rear blocks. Must admit the middle axle has me stumped though as the spigot on the hanger wants to be fitted just where the screw is for the pick-up solder tag. A couple of pictures showing the bends I put in the speedo support as well. Also added the oil filler castings by the inner wheels. Edited August 30, 2014 by brian daniels 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium boxbrownie Posted August 30, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 30, 2014 Very nice Brian, almost good enough to make me turn Western.................nah.........just kidding sunny...oops...bracing Eastern here That wheel rust looks spot on.......we are spoilt for detail if we can be bothered nowadays, excellent stuff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 So..........you've modified the brakes to JLTRT, despite demonstrating to me at Telford last year how good the Heljan ones were because they were springy and unbreakable? I shall be having words next Sunday young man....... Only joking Brian, but will be coming for a chat again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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